Completed in 1902 at Boston, Mass.
Squier was noted for making remarkable experiments to arrive at the Italian tonal quality. He was very patient and very enthusiastic in his art.
He is considered one of the foremost American violin makers. He completed approximately 600 instruments in his life time.
This violin, #452, is a reproduction of a type known as "Joseph Guarnerius". Paganini is known to have played an original Guarnerius violin.
In 1903, Mr. Squier told a news reporter that .. "the top of this violin is a piece of wood out of a old cathedral in Vienna, Austria, which was built in 1845. The back came out of a tree that was 400 years old when it was cut down. Ripe in every pore at the time of its cutting, it was seasoned fifty years before I began work on it. The tree grew in Lititz, Penn, and was one of the red bud maples which are earliest to bud in spring. The head was carved by Theodore Gegoux father of the present owner, who worked from an old daguerreotype of Paganini taken in 1810."
The carved likeness of Nicolo Paganini, (1782 - 1840), the great violinist, was completed by Theo. Gegoux, sr., the artist, at Watertown, N.Y. in 1902.
This violin was originally owned and played by Theodore Gegoux, Jr., (1883 - 1927). Theo jr. was a member of several orchestras at Watertown, he was the leader of his own ensemble band, and he frequently played for his fellow church goers at the Boone Street Chapel. At the time of his death Theodore Jr. was listed as the violin soloist for the Universalist Church on Alvarado Street in Los Angeles.
Theo Gegoux, jr. once wrote .. "The voice improves almost daily, and is constantly moving toward that Excelsior that is its destiny. If I were starving, I would part with it."
This violin was reconditioned in 1997 by the late Terry Carrol of Rialto, California.
Jerome Bonaparte Squier (1838-1912)
Jerome Bonaparte Squier, sometimes referred to as the "American Stradivari," was born in Cleveland and died in Boston. He began making violins in Lewiston, Maine, then set up his own shop on Washington Street in Boston in 1881. Among his most famous violins are the twelve "Apostles" series and the "George Washington". He experimented a great deal with varnish recipes, the golden brown of his amber oil varnish considered his best. His son, V. C. Squier also became a prolific maker in Boston, Worcester, and Battle Creek, Michigan.
Information provided by Johnson String Company ©
Boston Journal article, dated 1903, which describes the making of this violin.
For more information .. also see the Universal Dictionary of Violin & Bow Makers
J. Bonaparte Squier, 1838 - 1912
